Lynch, Thomas

Lynch, Thomas,

1749–79, political figure in the American Revolution, signer of the Declaration of Independence, known as Thomas Lynch, Jr., b. Prince George Parish, S.C., studied Cambridge and law at the Middle Temple, London. A captain (1775–76) in the First South Carolina Regiment, he was elected (1776) to the Continental Congress as his ill father's successor, but soon resigned because of his own ill health. He was lost at sea while sailing to the West Indies (and thence to France) for his health. His father, Thomas Lynch, 1727–1776, American stateman and planter, b. St. James Parish, S.C., served in the South Carolina house of assembly, general committee, provincial congress, and state general assembly. He was a delegate to the Stamp Act Congress (1765) and the Continental Congress (1774–76), but illness prevented his signing the Declaration of Independence.